


A Mother's Love

by Lorekeeper-Of-The-Nine (AtomicCherryBomb)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Freeform, Love, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, Odin (Marvel)'s Parenting, Other, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 20:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17290790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtomicCherryBomb/pseuds/Lorekeeper-Of-The-Nine
Summary: A Mother is not a mother simply because she gave birth. A mother is someone who loves and cares and nourishes all of her children, regardless of how they came to be in her care or where they came from. Frigga's feelings of acceptance and love of her youngest son.





	A Mother's Love

**Author's Note:**

> I have been terribly busy with work and it's left me with very little time to write and embellish my own stories so I have been filling the time with small one offs and prompts.

From the moment that Odin first walked into her chambers, shrouded in a cloak and cradling a small blue child to his chest, Frigga had not hesitated. She rushed to him as the glamor faded back into place, disguising him as an Asgardian once more. She cradled the crying babe to her, brushing slender fingers over his pale skin and cooing to soothe him. Without thought she bared her breast, still swollen with milk from her own son who was sleeping in the bassinet nearby and fed the child. If the act bothered the Allfather, he said nothing, simply speaking softly to his wife as she nursed the boy. 

She would call him Loki, she decided, naming him and whispering the moniker to him with love in her voice. 

It had never been a question in her mind, whether or not to treat this young prince as her own and she had loved him from the moment she saw him as though he were her own. She knew, of course, what lay before the babe, even before he was speaking his first word. Odin had intended to raise him beside Thor and foster loyalty in him to unite the realms, but she would never see him as something different or other. She hoped too, that her husband might come to care for him the way that she had from the start. 

Regardless, Odin would never allow anyone but Thor, the golden heir, to sit on the throne of Asgard. She knew as only a mother did, what favoritism could do to children, what dark thoughts and doubts could grow in shadows. The whole of the nine realms already fawned over the golden haired prince and she feared already what that might cause to grow within the newest addition to their family. Her husband and his child cast one of the largest shadows that any of the nine had ever seen, and this poor sweet boy would always be right beside them and shrouded within it.

When he had finished taking his meal, he peered up at her with sleeping eyes and she gifted him with a gentle smile. “”My son,’ she whispered softly and toyed with his small hand, letting him clench a fist around her finger as he drifted into sleep. Frigga pressed a kiss to his forehead, filling the gesture with her hopes for his future that she was already so very invested in, and held him as he dreamed. 

As the years passed it became apparent that her fears had been well founded. Her older son took to being a big brother easily, loving his younger brother and doting on him as much as Frigga did. They got into such trouble together even as toddlers, terrorizing the guards with reckless abandon. It did her heart good to see the way they worked together, even if was for the sake of such mischief. Yet still she saw the way that Loki struggled to keep up or how he would look at Thor sometimes when the older boy had been triumphant in one of their games as he often was.

Thor was already showing signs of arrogance under the praise of his father and she could see the way Loki moped, trying desperately for the same recognition. He mimicked his brother as best he could, trying to keep up with Thor physically and resorting to his own cleverness where he felt short. She couldn’t help the great swell of pride she felt when her intelligent little son would outwit his older brother any more than she could help the kind praise that she would whisper to him as she tucked him into bed. 

He was intelligent and cunning even then, absorbing information and eager for more at every possible turn. Loki would sit at her skirts, asking questions about anything and everything and engaging her about her answers. Far more advanced than a boy of his age should be. She adored his eager enthusiasm and the way he would come to her with books he wanted her to read before sleep. 

Even Odin had come to love Loki as his own and they decided one night, after he had watched Frigga read the boy to sleep, that a new approach was needed. While he intended to tell Loki the truth of his heritage he had found that he could not bring himself to do it. The Allmother cradled his great head in his lap like a child and smoothed her fingers through her beloved King’s grey hair. 

“He is clever, my husband. You cannot shield him from the truth forever,” she whispered sadly. 

“I can, and I must,” he sighed raggedly. Already he had told stories of the frost giants to Thor and already Loki was joining his older brother in playing Frost Giants and Einherjer with the other children. He was hearing the stories they told of the horrid creatures that their mothers had told them, fanning a hatred in the boy so eager to prove himself. It troubled him, the way he would hear the youngest prince declare his hatred for a people he had no idea he was born into.

While Odin was not always so wise and observant as his beloved Queen, he knew the look that he saw in his youngest son’s pale blue eyes. He had found something to focus his frustration on, a monster in the dark to triumph over and he could only hope that he could shield him from realizing the truth of it all. Not many things scared him, but in the darkest corner of his mind he knew that he feared what the truth might do to young Loki and to his relationship with his older brother and their friends- his relationship to his parents.

It was decided then, despite Frigga’s patient and insistent protests, that they must keep the truth from Loki. The Allfather would strengthen the truce between their people and they would continue to love and raise him as their own. 

As if the decision itself had swayed some thread of fates beneath the Norn’s fingers, the very next day the Allmother’s steps were halted by the sound of small sobs in the halls. So quiet and muffled were they that anyone but a mother may have missed them, but she had felt it in her heart immediately. She turned and allowed her slippered feet to carry her to the source, pushing aside a tapestry and finding her youngest son crouching there in a hidden hallway with his head in his hands. 

He looked up at her, face streaked with dirt and tears and eyes glistening in pain and her heart broke within her breast. The Queen of the nine realms kneeled, gathering the boy up in her arms and lifting him. “Hush my son. Tell me what is wrong,” she soothed softly, throat tight with emotion as she felt his tiny fists in the fabric of her dress. 

“Father is starting Thor’s training and has said that I am not ready,” he managed between choked little hiccups against her shoulder. “Why am I not like Thor? Why am I so different?” 

It was the first time she had heard him recognize their differences aloud and even at the young age of a mere 5 years old he could see it. Her quiet, ingenius little boy hurt because of the one thing she could never change and it tore through her. “My beloved Loki,” she began carefully, running her hand through his dark hair and rubbing his small back. “We do not all have the same strengths or weaknesses, we are all uniquely ourselves. There is beauty in our differences if only we are willing to see it.” 

“Why am I not strong like Thor?” He was petulant and bitter beyond his few years, but some of the watery anguish within his tiny voice had faded as he nuzzled further into his mother's warmth.

“Because you have other strengths, dearheart,” she told him with a pleasant smile. She bent once more, setting him back down and drying his face before offering her hand. He took it and she lead him further through the passage that she knew would take them out and into the gardens. How clever he was to be finding these hidden thruways already, and much more trouble he would be for it. “Being a good man and a good King is not simply a matter of being strong.” 

“What am I?” It was innocent and a touch hopeful. 

“My son, you are agile, clever, playful and so very good with your words,” she encouraged and gave him a mischievous little smile. “Thor could never convince Odin that he had been nowhere near the stables when all the horses were let loose.” 

The young boy’s eyes widened for a moment and he tried to deny it, but she could see a glint of pride there. Oh, Loki would be a handful indeed. “I wasn’t!”

“Of course not,” she played along. “However that is a strength my darling. Words are a strength far more useful than physical prowess. Your father and I are very proud of your skill with them.” 

He was silent as they emerged just short of the door to the garden and passed through it, walking along the small path between the lush foliage. It was clear that he was considering her words carefully as well as what he would say in return. “How can words ever outshine lightning?”

It was something she had spent years considering in one form or another, and while she once hesitated she now knew the answer to. Likewise she knew without a doubt that her little trouble making son would only ever use it to his own advantage, but she found that the thought of it did not frighten her as it could. He would need to be clever and mischievous and even a bit duplicitous if he hoped to shine in their shadows. What could a mother do except give of herself in any way that she could to help him do so. 

“My little prince,” she sighed as she crouched down to take his hands. “Perhaps it is time I showed you how to use our tricks?” 

The joy on his face was something she could not recall ever seeing so unguarded in the boy before. He lit up with a grin so wide it chased the last hints of inadequacy and fear from his little face in an instant. For a moment she thought she saw a glimpse of his future there, or perhaps it was just what a mother wanted to see. 

Yes, she would teach him her tricks and show him all of the marvelous ways that he could manipulate seidr. He already had a natural affinity for it, but with her hand teaching him he would become the best magic wielder in the nine realms, she was sure of it. Perhaps then he could stand on equal ground with Thor. She could only hope that it would be enough to bridge the gap of differences between them and connect her youngest son to his brother. 

Surely Odin could never begrudge her her motherly duty, no matter how much trouble the boy caused with it. That was what mother’s did after all; regardless of how their children had come to them. They gave them love, guidance and all the tools that they would need to go out into the worlds to be successful. In the end, they hoped that their care could outweigh the horrors and influence of all else around them to keep them safe. She had to hope that it would be, because her son would need so very much love to make it through this life. May the Norn’s help them all if he ever were to find out what she kept from him.


End file.
